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Anyone Make Money With Stock Photography

by MommyEnterprises
10 replies
I really enjoy taking pictures. I have been told you can actually make money with stock photography.

Anyone making money with this?
#make #money #photography #stock
  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    I have made some money but nothing to write home about. It's a hard road.

    What I found works for me is this. Take photos you will want to use on your own sites and sell those. That way you have a use for them and the stock income is gravy

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author kswr123
    there really are strict rules with regard to the shadowing, model releases, lighting etc.

    PM me a link to a pic, or post one here, and I'll let you know if it would be accepted, as I have had some experience with this.

    Mubarak
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  • Profile picture of the author Ed Bustya
    I tried PhotoShelter for awhile, with no luck. And then they discontinued their
    stock program. It's still a good site to keep your photos. Generally, you need
    to have very high quality images to get into a good stock photo agency. Then
    you need to have hundreds or thousands of the same quality photos to make
    any money at it. Some of the big stock photo agencies are having financial
    problems and some have or are going out of business. You could try to make
    money with royalty-free images, but then you need tens of thousands of images,
    or else some great images that are in the most popular niches. The most popular
    niches are not what you'd think - unless you're into studio-produced people
    and lifestyle type photos.
    For a lot of good info about stock photos see the selling_stock_photography
    group at Yahoo.
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  • Profile picture of the author UniqueMind
    I frequently use 'free' stock images as they're just sufficient for my needs. And yes you need to have a lot of creative pics to actually make anything with it. You can do social bookmarking and SEO with blogs to your stock profile may also work out.

    Also you can look forward to market with tumblr.com. Find a photo editing software which has affiliate network, cloak it and your all set. Simply upload your pics and say how you've done it with this particular software and insert cloaked link. You may white hat (or blackhat) Cookie Stuff for best results. Trust me the traffic is massive and highly targeted.

    best,
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  • Profile picture of the author Bizsouth
    From my research, stock photo business used to be great. But since the internet has grown so much, you can obtain almost any image free, therefore lowering the value. Used to could make a good living at it but I don't know if you can anymore. Maybe so, I don't know. I have been a professional photographer for 25 years and I once looked into stock photos and the payouts were huge for some. The photographers I know who do it now make only $2 or $3 a week at best.
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    • Profile picture of the author sylviad
      Many years ago, I looked into stock photography work, but that was in the days when magazines and other print media would pay a good price for a great cover pic. But then they hired their own photographers for special covers.

      At the time, the stock photo companies were paying some ridiculously low price and I don't think that has changed at all. They want a minimum # of articles, usually 1000 just to get started, plus ongoing masses of contributions every month. They have to be good, you must know what you're doing and make sure you get appropriate model releases and approval to sell photos of certain types of buildings. Some buildings are illegal to shoot. It requires a lot of extra work than just taking a photo.

      If you want to sell your photos, you'd be better off selling them direct yourself, rather than going through a stock photo company that will take the largest chunk of income for themselves.

      Put up your own photo gallery (be sure to watermark your images so no one can steal them) and offer people a chance to buy them for their own use, like computer wallpaper. If you can, try to link up with additional services, those that will create products using your photos - like mugs, tshirts, flags, calendars, and even turn them into framed wall hangings.

      Kodak Gallery is one site that offers that flexibility, but again Kodak will get the money instead of you.

      Just figure, if you sell each photo for $10-$15 you could make a good income if that photo sold to 100 people.

      Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author jcoo
    I've been a professional photographer for over 25 years. I have sold stock on a limited basis, but it is difficult to compete with the big sites like Getty and I-stock. The way a lot of the stock photography is created is by professional photographers who are paid by large companies to create certain shots with paid models and a predetermined theme. That's not to say you can't earn some money, but it is not a big money source.
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  • Profile picture of the author GuruGazette
    As you can see, traditional photographers look down on the newer micro stock models I personally however, have it mixed into my arsenal.

    I sell directly from my own site, plus ShutterStock, IStock, Dreamstime, BigStock, Fotolia, 123RF and StockXpert.

    My site, SS & DS earn me the most, but the others trickle sales in steadily.

    It's not an easy business to break in to and once you have your foot in the door it's not easy to make loads of money with either. There's a huge difference between taking "pretty pictures" of subjects you adore (pets/scenics/flowers) and taking stock worthy, commercially oriented, conceptual shots that sell well.

    There are some really high caliber professionals that make $10,000+ monthly but those are the rare few. They also tend to be the ones who have invested in hiring professional models, assistants and so on.

    Hope that helps,
    Kathy
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  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hey,

    I read a story in a newspaper about a guy who does this for a living and clears about $40,000 a year. I was amazed by the story. It seems he has it pretty sweet, he gets to travel all over the world and do something he loves. He mentions at one point a photograph was picked up for a major ad campaign and he made $8,000 off one photo!

    Regards, Phil
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